Pre-E3 2009: Afrika's Finally Coming

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Official details and hands-on with the intriguing PS3 exclusive.

By Ryan Clements

We first heard about Afrika several years ago, most noticeably at E3 2006, when an animal-filled trailer popped up amidst a sizzle reel during Sony's press conference. The trailer didn't have any gameplay to speak of -- just scenes of majestic animals grazing in a series of exotic African locales. The trailer was instantly a target of speculation, but U.S. gamers didn't hear much else about Afrika for quite some time. Much later on, more information was dispersed through the net that revealed the basic premise of Afrika's gameplay: taking photographs of African wildlife. But even though you can now find ample details about this PS3 exclusive online, U.S. gamers seem to remain in the dark about the Afrika experience. That's about to change.

Developed by Rhino Studios, Afrika is a photography simulator with adventure elements. Boasting licenses from Sony and National Geographic (to name a few), Afrika places you in the vast African wilderness as you attempt to capture images of the various animals and plants with your trusty camera. I had the opportunity to sit down with a U.S. preview build of the game and try it for myself, which led to a series of blurry photos and being knocked unconscious by a hippopotamus. Oh well -- I get an "A" for effort!

Gameplay clips at last!

Afrika is divided into several different modes, though all of them revolve around the "one with nature" design theme. The Safari mode is divvied into three parts: the Safari Game, the Photo Gallery and the Big Game Trophy mode. The GEO Afrika section of the game is also split into three segments: the Afrika Field Guide, the National Geographic Library and the Afrika Viewer.

The Safari Game is the bread and butter of the Afrika experience. In it, you'll choose between a male or female photographer and set up a large tent in the African wild, which serves as your base of operations. Here, you can sort through your various cameras and lenses, study maps of the surrounding environments and check your PC for email and more. Emails are the key to accepting missions in Afrika, and missions are the primary gameplay component of the experience. You'll be tasked with pursing particular animals or photographs, and you'll be rewarded with handsome payments for getting the job done.

When you're actually roaming the wild, you can move around and control the camera just like any other adventure game with the two analog sticks. Pressing Square will bring you into a first-person camera mode, where you can adjust a surprising amount of options. Depending on the camera, you'll also have a digital zoom available that can be adjusted with the right stick. You can even tilt your controller to the side to take a portrait shot -- nice touch.

Pressing down on the D-pad will make your character crouch low so you can sneak closer to the otherwise skittish wildlife. Of course, if you do scare away that nervous zebra, you can always hop into your jeep and drive after it. Although you won't be able to get Halo-like airtime in your vehicle, it's a great way to get around, despite the fact that it makes a lot of noise and might scare away more animals in the process.

Although I wasn't able to see it, your photographer will also have access to more advanced camera tech, like trap cameras for snapping a shot of nocturnal creatures and cameras mounted on small remote-control rovers. This will hopefully give players even more options for capturing rare moments on film.

The great thing about Safari mode is that completing missions doesn't just net you cash. When you take a picture of a particular animal, you'll unlock extended information and media about that animal in the GEO Afrika section of the game. The National Geographic Library is full of real photographs and video clips of the various African critters, so this unlocking system adds to the "collectible nature" of the experience. The Afrika Field Guide is also helpful, as it has plenty of facts straight from National Geographic on the animals so players will be able to learn a little bit about nature as they go.

Very pretty.

Going back to the Safari portion of Afrika, the Big Game Trophy mode is an excellent way to see the most exciting, classic moments in the African landscape. These are like the mini-games of Afrika, as they drop the player into a preset scenario where you have a limited amount of time to take a picture of the event at hand, like two lions fighting or a cheetah chasing down a gazelle. These mini-games remove the exploratory element of Afrika and focus on the raw picture taking, which you're graded on.

Of course, what "one with nature" game would be complete without a straight screensaver mode to put on at parties? In the Afrika Viewer, you can set up an automated camera to pan across the game's landscapes, and you can even set the slideshow to music. And the music, by the way, is quite fantastic.

Although I barely scratched the surface of Afrika, this game looks like it has serious potential to win over a niche crowd. With more than 100 missions to pursue and plenty of animals to capture on film, Afrika is sure to be a welcome break from the standard shooter/action game fare we've seen so much of lately.